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This year's prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded for revolutionary findings that illuminate how the body's defense network attacks harmful infections while protecting the body's own cells.

A trio of esteemed scientists—Japan's Prof. Sakaguchi and American experts Dr. Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—share this honor.

The research uncovered unique "sentinels" within the defense system that remove malfunctioning immune cells that could attacking the body.

The findings are now enabling new therapies for autoimmune diseases and malignancies.

These laureates will share a prize fund worth 11 million SEK.

Crucial Discoveries

"The research has been essential for comprehending how the immune system functions and why we do not all develop serious autoimmune diseases," stated the chair of the award panel.

The team's research explain a fundamental question: How does the defense system protect us from countless invaders while keeping our healthy cells unharmed?

Our immune system employs immune cells that scan for signs of disease, even pathogens and germs it has never encountered.

These defenders employ detectors—called recognition units—that are generated by chance in a vast number of combinations.

That provides the defense network the capacity to fight a broad range of threats, but the randomness of the mechanism unavoidably produces immune cells that may target the host.

Security Guards of the Immune System

Scientists previously understood that a portion of these problematic white blood cells were eliminated in the immune organ—the site where immune cells develop.

The latest award recognizes the identification of T-reg cells—described as the immune system's "peacekeepers"—which patrol the system to disarm other immune cells that assault the healthy cells.

It is known that this mechanism malfunctions in self-attack conditions such as type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and RA.

A prize committee added, "The discoveries have laid the foundation for a new field of research and accelerated the development of innovative therapies, for instance for tumors and autoimmune diseases."

Regarding cancer, T-regs prevent the body from attacking the tumor, so studies are aimed at reducing their quantity.

For autoimmune diseases, experiments are exploring increasing regulatory T-cells so the body is not under attack. A comparable approach could also be useful in minimizing the risks of organ transplant failure.

Pioneering Experiments

Prof Shimon Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, performed experiments on rodents that had their thymus extracted, causing autoimmune disease.

He demonstrated that injecting defense cells from other mice could prevent the illness—suggesting there was a mechanism for preventing defenders from harming the host.

Dr. Brunkow, from the Institute for Systems Biology in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, currently at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in a California city, were investigating an inherited autoimmune disease in rodents and people that led to the identification of a gene critical for the way T-regs function.

"Their groundbreaking work has revealed how the immune system is controlled by T-reg cells, preventing it from mistakenly targeting the healthy cells," commented a leading biological science specialist.

"The work is a remarkable example of how basic physiological research can have far-reaching consequences for human health."